Chapter 6: Challenges
Knock Knock Knock
Golden eyes opened as if fatigue did not weigh them down and the man was near silent as he slid out of bed. His ki reached out for signs of threat by force of habit. There was none, although only the most inept of criminal would announce their presence so blatantly with ill intent.
Knock Knock Knock
Dragging on a pair of pants, Saitou Hajime padded down the hall, noting that while the knocking was insistent, it was somehow not loud enough to wake his wife and children, a fact that would spare whoever was out there some of the Wolf's ire. Sword in hand, he swung the door open and immediately had to catch his falling student.
"Sorry," the girl forced through swollen, split lips. "I didn't know where else to go…" She'd drifted off into unconsciousness, seemingly in the midst of saying more, but the policeman could not fault her. Indeed, it was a miracle she could speak at all in her state. Her skin was a hodge-podge of cuts and bruises, along with an arm that seemed to be broken in a couple of places. Her skull and ribs looked cracked and it was likely she'd have a hefty amount of scarring if she lived through her injuries. Already he didn't like the sound of water on her lungs.
"There she is!" one of the men pursuing her shouted into the night, eyes lit with glee and hunger. "Hey, that's Fuushiro's woman! You best not touch her."
"The smartest thing you can do, pig, is put her down and walk away," the more level-headed of the two said reasonably. "Clearly we should have broken that bitch's legs instead of her arm. Let's make this quick. I want Fuushiro's reward." The two men approached quickly, obviously expecting Saitou to drop the dark-skinned woman and run. It was therefore easy to spit the two fools on his sword. He'd dispose of the bodies once he had his informant settled. This was going to be one hell of an explanation.
It was three days later before the eighteen-year-old opened her eyes. He'd eliminated any trace that she'd run to him in the time she'd spent in a coma as her body attempted to recover. The policer officer had recruited his wife to clean the girl and change her into a clean yukata. He'd simply declared his old storage room off limits to his sons and that seemed to do the trick. No one dared question him about it. He'd thought none of his wife's things would fit the portly foreigner, but it turned out that most of the dirt and grime - as well as the smell - was from a bodysuit that was now so much mulch in the backyard. The bodysuit was thickly padded, likely the one reason she'd survived her pummeling at all.
And now he sat on his day off, kneeling across from the injured woman as if she were an opponent.
"What happened?"
The woman looked surprised at his harsh tone, but did not flinch at the question, a point in her favor. "I got caught."
"This goes beyond being 'caught', Fuushiro-san," he stated, relishing the way her dark eyes flashed at the veiled insult. "Fuushiro had his men beat you bloody for no apparent reason."
"It was my birthday when he caught me," she said as if that explained everything. "He needed me weak so that-"
"'So that' what?" he asked, feral golden eyes narrowed at the slip. Instead of answering, the girl took a sip of her long cooled tea and sighed. She wasn't going to talk, he could already sense her mental retreat. "Please," he finally said to stave off the inevitable withdrawal, "I need to know what me and my family have gotten ourselves into."
She gave another sigh, as if the world were on her shoulders. And after an eternity of silence, she finally spoke to the mat and the tea that now sat at her side. "Fuushiro has forged a new, dangerous alliance with an up and comer named Takeda Kanryu. He's rising too quickly not to have some kind of spy help, maybe a rival for the Oniwabanshi. Drugs, girls, weapons… he's got a precarious hold on all of it at present. If he isn't stopped, he's poised to be the next Akira Fuushiro, with twice the dedication and ties to the underworld."
"His men spotted me on the way from a meeting between him and my uncle. They would have placed me in with the rest of the prostitutes, but Fuushiro wouldn't allow it. "'I still need her virginal and her left hand intact enough to sign paperwork,' he said, "Just teach her a lesson about what happens when you mess in a man's world." she shuddered helplessly. "There were about fifteen of them and they took turns beating the shit out of me. They kept screaming about how amazing it was that my dark skin could bruise. I fought back, but against those odds…"
"They left me after a day or so of torture. I think uncle was going to give me time to consider my options - or lack thereof - before bringing that stupid contract of his to me again. I saw the opening in the shack and I just.. I just ran. Like a coward. Well, coward I may be, but my life wouldn't be worth a spit once he forced me to sign. And there are worse things than death for a woman."
The man before her absorbed the information without judgment, which had encouraged her to say as much as she had. Saitou considered her story in the silence that had fallen over the room. If this Kanryu was as powerful as the girl - no, woman - before him stated, he would have to be dealt with. For as long as he had dealt with the woman in front of him, he could read between the lines of her report. The man in question truly had her worried and the fact that he had never heard of this Kanryu said a great deal about his ability to camouflage himself amongst the usual villians of the underworld. Now that he had a name, however, the man's defeat was only a matter of time. "Tell me more about this contract Max wants you to sign."
"I… I can't," she gulped and shivered. "It has nothing to do with you or your investigation."
"Our deal said-"
"And what would you do with that knowledge? Spread my name all over the station? I'd be dead or worse within days, and your family would become a target. I need time to heal, Saitou-san." she said defiantly. "No. It's not time yet. I need to be able to protect myself again before I can disclose that information and make myself so vulnerable."
"You don't believe I can protect you?"
"When the time comes, you'll be too interested in protecting your family to worry about some foreigner. Believe me, in high places, my disappearance has already been noticed. People will be searching for me." Something about the way she said this quieted the detective's protests. The idea that the girl may have brought trouble to his family lit something wild in his blood, but more important was the cunning behind her move. Hajime knew he would allow her to stay and recover here now. She would hide under his protection and allow his wife to tend her because whoever she really was, she was important enough a pawn to bring him absolute victory in the fight against this current evil. She deserved nothing less for her loyalty to him. And he had to admire her defiance, even beaten within an inch of her life.
"You will stay here until you've recovered," he said after a length of silence that had the woman fidgeting. "I will press you no further on your identity for now, but you will remain in this room and out of sight for the time being. And if I feel you're presence is threatening my family, I'll kill you myself."
"I accept your terms, Mibu's Wolf," she said gravely, bowing as much as she could around broken ribs. "I will not attempt to deceive you and I will remain out of sight. I am no threat to you or your family. I only wish to recover my strength before taking on my enemies once again."
"Very well."
One Year Later
He cleaned everything meticulously, with much more care than he would have normally. Mind carefully blank, the eighteen-year-old allowed himself to feel nothing as he drew a rag over the pottery and polished the floor to a high shine. For the last three days, Kenshin had been operating in this state of shock. Carefully serving himself the dinner he'd caught and cooked for himself, his mind centered on a single thought: this can't go on.
He'd learned many skills in his two years living with his master. Cooking, cleaning, woodworking, carpetry, sewing… In addition to his swordwork, he'd been taught and drilled on what skills he would need to survive in the world he'd left behind. He was suddenly grateful for that training.
His shishou had taken him in by every definition of the words, showing him what a pampered life he'd had. Kenshin worked from dawn to dusk daily, learning a man's skills as well as women's work. Hiko had insisted that he know how to provide for himself completely when he left the mountain. It grated on him how correct Areyn had been when she rejected him - he'd had no practical skills, nothing to offer her either. He'd been naive and that naivite had likely cost him everything when it came to her. Surely she was married by now, married with a couple of children to tend. News did not reach them up here, isolated from society. But late at night, as he lay aching from the day's brutal labor, he went over that fateful conversation with the woman he loved. Wondered at his own naivete, his assumptions. And wondered what he could have done differently to win her over.
Nothing. After two years of intense reflection he realized that there was nothing he could have done differently that night. He was a different person then, a geisha begging a manual laborer to live in his fantasy world. If she'd gone with him that day, she would have had to take care of him. It was best that she'd turned him down. Now that he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, he doubted she would be there in Kyoto to appreciate it. His callused hands and the scars on his body spoke more eloquently of his transition into being a real man than poetry could. Lean cords of muscle now covered his entire body. His mind was sharper, harder than it had been in the teahouse. Though it infuriated him, Kenshin could not rid himself of the knowledge that Takani-san had imparted on him, no matter how hard he tried to rid himself of that part of his life. Random turns of phrase or mannerisms popped up when he wasn't thinking about it to shishou's amusement.
Neither man had ever spoken of his old profession. That part of his life was over. His shishou had pushed him to labor with something akin to fanaticism, as if he were determined to personally make up for all the years the boy had wasted. And it had worked. Under Hiko's tutelage he'd built his own house next to the hut his master had lived in, learned the trade of pottery, become a seamstress, and cook, and finally mastered the Hiten Mitsurugi three days ago.
He still couldn't believe it. His master's body still resided in the master bedroom of his hut where Kenshin had carried his body three days ago. He'd cleaned and prepared the body for the afterlife, but still hesitated to light the pire that he'd prepared for him outside of both their houses. Because if he lit it, if he burned his master's body, then he had no purpose as the fourteenth master of the Hiten Mitsurugi. Surely his shishou hadn't meant for him to be a simple potter after all this time. No, the letter he'd left for his baka-deshi, the letter he'd read to shreds in the last three days, had hinted at a grander destiny.
Hi, baka-deshi,
If you are reading this, you have completed your training and therefore are my rightful heir and the official Fourteenth Master of the Hiten Mitsurugi. Congratulations are in order.
Do not grieve me, baka. This is the way of our sword art. The final test. Either the master kills the student or the student kills the master. But I've done my job too well for you to have failed me in this. You have come a long way from the soft-living geisha I met in that kami-forsaken teahouse so long ago. I'm almost impressed at the speed with which you've learned to live as a man. I could have done better, but you have the disadvantage of being you.
The money in the top drawer represents all of my worldly possessions. I bequeath them all to you. I demand you have a proper toast to me with the finest sake you can find. And don't give me that crap about not being able to hold your liquor. A toast is the least you can do for all the hardship I had to put up with raising you. Hell, I had to compress a lifetime of training into two short years. It's a testament to my amazing skills as a teacher that I was able to do it. Especially with such a dense pupil to work with.
Now, to that girl you were pursuing. You have no right to interfere in her affairs, but seeing as I will no longer be there to stop you and you refuse to see reason, I know that eventually you will seek her out. Here are my final words of advice to you regarding Areyn-chan. Her path may have diverged from yours after all these years, and you will have to accept that, baka. But, if she's still willing to tolerate your stupidity, you would be a fool to reject her. She would have made an excellent student, better than you ever could be with her determination and stubborness, but such a thing was not meant to be. Be careful with her, baka. For all her strength of spirit, she is still a woman.
Sayanora,
Hiko Seijiro, Thirteen Master of Hiten Mitsurugi
What did he mean by all that? Of course he couldn't pursue her! Areyn Fuushiro was likely married by or to her wicked uncle and pregnant. The idea of her filled with another man's seed made him angry enough to consider using his newly acquired mastery to eliminate his competition, but his master had been right. He had no right to acquire her for himself.
Or maybe he was just being a hurt child about this. The last time he'd spoken to her about love, she'd called him a pampered, pathetic brat. What would she see now if he went to her? Would she notice the changes in him? Was it too much to hope for that she'd waited for him? That she still loved him? For love him she did. She'd never denied it, simply pushed him away as she'd pushed everyone away back then. And two years was a lifetime to change, he'd already proven that. Perhaps, with time, she'd come to regret her harsh words to him. Perhaps… She was willing to admit her love and was tormented by the fact that he was no longer around to confess to.
Well, he'd hate to disappoint her.
Cursing himself for every type of fool, but heart settled at last, Kenshin Himura set both the houses ablaze in a pyre fit for a king. He was actually amazed that the forest surrounding the clearing didn't catch fire from the size of the blaze, but he'd soaked the grass and trees closest to the fire meticulously before putting a torch to the homes. He'd decided that he was never meant to live in isolation from the world. If Areyn rejected him again, he would simply wander Japan, helping those in need as best he could with the skills he'd acquired from his dead master. If she didn't…
If she accepted him, sorted past and all, he would break her free of the ties that bound her. She was only meant to be his. He was the only one that could match that brilliant spirit of hers.
Path chosen at last, the Fourteenth Master of the Hiten Mitsurugi left his master's mountain and headed out to find out his beloved's fate.
"You're pushing too hard," Saitou barked quietly into the night.
"Yes, shishou," the nineteen-year-old he was addressing bowed before beginning again, working just as hard as before. This was her only chance to work on her technique before the next night and she didn't intend to waste it.
Instead of arguing with the woman, Saitou took in her form with a smile of pride. Now that she wasn't hiding her lean, supple body from the world, her form had improved a hundred times over. Her stance was perfect in the white hamaka pants and the royal blue gi she wore, a gift from his wife six months ago. She'd abided by all his rules in the past year, staying away from his family as much as humanly possible. He wasn't actually sure what she did in her room all day everyday until he came to get her once everyone was asleep. Whatever it was, she was covered in lean muscle and her body had filled to satisfaction with two square meals a day to look forward to. She and Tokio had become firm friends once the younger woman woke and he'd encouraged this as much as possible, in that he didn't forbid it and even allowed his wife to lend her certain books and such for entertainment. Had she been a man, he would have declared he'd found a successor. But as a woman, such skill with a sword was unnecessary. Or at least, it should have been. "What exactly are you training for?"
She stopped her strokes to look at him as if he were crazy. "I'm training so that the next time fifteen dirty, mangy, filthy men come at me screaming about rape and worse, I can hand them all their teeth," she delared angrily.
"I would have trouble taking on fifteen men at once," he soothed, placing a hand over hers to stop her from returning to her strokes. "The trick would be to run away and-"
"I'm not a coward," the woman spat irritably, looking around to make sure her quiet words weren't heard.
"Is that how they caught you?" the dectective asked curiously. At her shrug, he sighed. "It's not always weakness to run away, Areyn. If you can get them one to one, it's a great way to whittle their numbers down. You would have to keep running though until the numbers were more manageable. Once that happens, you could easily 'hand them ther teeth'. As long as you could still stand."
"I can't exactly train for that kind of endurance here, can I?" she whispered.
"No," the man acknowledged. "But you won't be here forever, Areyn-chan."
"Once I leave this place, I'll literally have to start running. I don't exactly blend in here."
"Well, what are you waiting for? You've fully recovered from your injuries months ago."
"The Emperor's Ball," she answered absently.
Saitou felt his eyes bulge. "What?"
"The Emperor's Ball. If I can crash it, my revenge will be complete."
The man continued to stare at his student in disbelief suddenly understanding her need to train like it would save her life. It likely would. The Emperor's Ball was the most anticipated of yearly events. The number of dignitaries and foreign ambassadors that attended made security nearly impenetrable. Add to that the headache of getting to the ball in the first place…
"Who are you?"
"My name is Areyn Darcy," the woman bowed properly as befit a proper introduction. "My mother's maiden name was Grayland however. She was the sole heir of Grayland Power. Which makes me-"
"You're that Areyn Darcy?" Saitou shouted, forgetting himself for a moment. "Half the world is-"
"SHH," Areyn insisted. "You never know who's listening. Losing me in the middle of such a xenophobic society will grate on Lord Okubo's nerves. He-"
"What do you know about Okubo?"
"Only that starting an investigation on Uncle Max was rather convenient. And likely a means to make the man give up my location to save himself. I'm guessing the idea was for him to 'save me' from my wicked uncle. The publicity alone would have been-"
"I don't believe that is the only reason he called for it."
"Of course not. But a little self-serving never hurt anyone. After all, if you'd managed to oust Fuushiro before my eighteenth birthday, I would have been homeless. And by taking me in and claiming the reward for my 'discovery', it would have made him quite famous inside and outside of your country."
"There's more, isn't there?" Saitou asked angrily.
"The power of gratitude is strong," the woman continued quietly, ignoring the anger of her instructor. "I believe he thought that because he rescued me, I would be willing to contribute to the country as a whole, thus making him popular among the people. Such popularity could go a long way in the long run. I'm not trying to be mean, Saitou-kun, but I was taught to see the games people play."
"And what game am I playing?"
"You? That's easy. You're not playing a game at all. You want Fuushiro punished for his crimes and I'm the key to his complete defeat. That's why you've let me hide here all this time. But your worries will be over if I can just get to that Ball."
"And how do you plan to do that? The Ball is less than two months away and security is already in place for it. The emperor himself will be there after all. Should your uncle catch you on the way, you'll never live to see it. If the guards catch you, you'll be killed instantly. And who will believe your story? You've been missing for over a decade now."
"Such planning is best left unsaid in the open. I've said too much as it is and the walls could be listening. This is a country full of ninja," she said reasonably. "I would like to continue training, shishou." As the two got back to practicing, a shadow peeled itself from the others and disappeared into the night.
"Fuushiro's prize has broken her silence. It seems she is the missing heiress of Grayland Power, Inc."
Frigid blue eyes widened fractionally in surprise. Just as quickly they narrowed in thought as he pondered at his desk in Oniwabanshu headquarters. "What is her plan?"
"She did not reveal it in full, Okashira, but it seems to involve crashing the Emperor's Ball."
Aoshi nodded as the connections fell into place. "She is wise to reveal herself to her own kind. She will need help to accomplish her plan, whatever it may be."
"Then you plan to kill Mibu's Wolf at last?" Hannya asked out of curiosity. There was a long-standing feud that dated back to the Bakumatsu. Many that served under the Okashira wondered when the score would be settled.
"I have no plans to fight our final battle over a woman," the ninja snapped. gathering the forgotten papers together on his desk. "Contact Misao with this assignment. Flushing the young heiress out should be easy once the weasel is involved."
Hannya was taken aback by the use of the nickname for the girl. Seeing, and even more importantly, feeling no reaction from his liege from the slip, the spy decided to dismiss the sentence altogether. "Should she be told of the heiress?"
"There's no need to tip our hand so early. The two were close friends once. I'm sure once Misao reveals herself, little Aeryn will all too eagerly follow her back to us."
"As you will, Okashira," the man said, demon mask glinting in anticipation.
"Aeryn! Aeryn get out here," a voice that would have shattered glass with its boisterousness shouted into the Hajime residence.
Tokio jumped at the loud noise, rushing to soothe her napping two-year-old. "Excuse me, you're scaring my baby. What do you want here?"
"I want you to bring my friend out so I can see her," Misao cheerfully exclaimed, only lowering her voice marginally so that the baby started crying. "What a cute baby," she cooed in the child's face, causing the baby to start screaming louder in fright.
Tokio, ever the cultured hostess, swept her fifth child up into her arms expertly and turned on the hyperactive teen before her. "I don't know who you're talking about. Now, I must ask you to leave before I call for the police."
"Oh, bah! I'm a friend!" the girl said happily. "Aeryn and I used to be really close. Then one day she just disappeared! I've been looking all over for her for the last year and change and I heard a rumor that she was hiding out here. My feelings may never recover. Why did she run here? I could have helped her. Aeryn! Aeryn, it's alright. It's me, Misao! You can come out now!"
There was still no answer and Misao was starting to get pissed. Here she'd been busy chasing down even the barest hint of her friend and the past fifteen months she'd been hiding out with Fuushiro's arch nemesis! It was kind of brilliant in a way. No way her filthy uncle was coming anywhere near this compound. He'd already tried that when Gorou first started investigating him and had lost half his men. But now Miaso had arrived as the cavalry. She should be showing herself not hiding away!
"Aeryn?" The only response was the continued sobs of a tired, terrified baby. "Aeryn?"
"As you can see, there's no one by that name here. Now will you please leave? My baby is terrified!"
"Babies always cry around me," Misao reported absently looking around the impeccable compound. Kami's breath she'd never seen a place so clean and coordinated! Everything seemed to be linked to everything else, save for a small, slightly rundown shack on the edge of the property. "It's how you know I'm lucky. Is that where you're keeping her?"
"Keeping who?" the older woman ground out bouncing her baby to calm him and looking harrassed.
"Aeryn Fuushiro. She's a negro, you can't have missed her," the girl said absently as she headed in that direction. "She's my friend. She has to be here."
"For the last time, there's no one here," Tokio said, eyebrow twitching. "I want you off my property immediately."
"Aeryn," Misao called as she ran towards the shack. "Aeryn, it's me, Misao. Come out, please."
"Hey, that's my husband's private workshop! Leave that place alone!"
"Aha," the elated teen cried, swinging the door open. The room was complely empty. Looking around she saw a closet, but sliding that open she saw that was empty as well.
"You will leave my property now! My husband should be on his way home with all the racket you've been making. I insist you leave now" With one more forlorn look around, Misao did just that. How could she have been so wrong? She'd had it from a most reliable source that her long-time friend was hiding on this property. But if Aeryn was there why would she hide? How could she hide? Unless the woman was part ninja, highly unlikely considering her nationality, there was nowhere for the portly woman to hide herself in that room. Yet her instincts were screaming that was where she was! Resolved to find out the truth, Misao perked herself up as she skipped out of the compound. That's what she'd do. She'd use her ninja skills to stake out the place and if her beloved Aeryn was hiding there, she'd give her a piece of her mind!
When Saitou came home that night it was to a worked up household. The boys were in a fit over the thought of some unidentified female walking into their home while they were at school. Tokio herself was almost hysterical, only holding it together for the sake of her children. The man could think of little more annoying than a house full of distraught and dismayed women and children. A few short commands sent the boys to their rooms with their baby brother.
"Aeryn is gone," Tokio whispered fearfully once they were alone.
"What do you mean?"
"That girl that came here this afternoon was looking for her. I think she ran away to protect us."
The man said nothing, simply rising to go to the shack in question, his wife a nervous flutter at his side. When the door opened Aeryn was sitting seiza on the floor. "Good evening Saitou-san, Tokio-san."
"Oh, sweetie, you scared me," Tokio exclaimed, moving around her husband to hug the younger woman.
"I know. I'm sorry, Tokio-san, but Misao is dangerously focused over short periods of time. I had to disappear for a little bit. She'll likely come back later tonight to spy on this place some more."
"How do you know that?" Saitou asked, more relieved that he was willing to admit aloud that she was still sheltering under his roof.
"Misao has a manic kind of energy. I could feel it for a few hours after she left the residence. But it's gone now. I suspect she got bored or hungry. This is a new adventure for her though. It's likely a good idea that I stay under wraps for the next week or so until she loses interest. I'm so sorry she scared Taisho-chan. She really is harmless under all that energy."
"Oh, that's fine, Aeryn. Honestly, I was more worried about you! I can't imagine where in the world you could have hidden in this room." At that, the younger woman smiled mysteriously but refused to answer.
"Your plan has failed, Okashira. It's been two weeks and the girl has not shown herself to her old friend."
"Smart girl," Aoshi smiled. "It seems we will have to wait and simply assist her in her bid for reclaiming her empire. Have you seen her since Misao started her vigil?"
"No Okashira. The wife brings food to the shack twice a day as always, but other than that there is no activity."
"How long until the Ball?"
"Four weeks."
"Have false papers made up for Okon and myself. We will station our people along the most likely routes she will take to the Ball and take out any competition that tries to stop her."
"You understand that will likely be Fuushiro's plan as well," Hannya pointed out carefully. He worried about spreading the ninja too thin to be effective.
"It's a risk, but we'll use the bats to keep track of her movements," the leader of the Oniwabanshu said after an eternity of thought. "Once her route becomes more clear, we can converge on her position and offer support."
"And you?"
"I will be there to inform her of who kept her safe through the streets of Kyoto. I wish her to know who's kept her safe from harm these last sixteen months. Mibu's Wolf may have sheltered her, but we have kept those pitiful excuses for ninja away from her home."
"Of course, Okashira."
"Mimi?"
"I just have to - Kennie?" The two old friends stared at eachother across the busy street, neither believing the changes in the other. To Misao gone was the soft, supple geisha that she'd followed back and forth to the teahouse. Here before her stood a hardened warrior, a straw hat obscuring his eye-catching hair and eyes unless one took a closer look. She would never have mistaken him for a geisha now.
As for Kenshin, he couldn't believe the changes in his childhood friend. Gone was the grubby little urchin that tumbled through life. In her place was a lovely seventeen-year-old in a kimono, holding a bucket of refuse. Then she ruined his impression of maturity by grinning in her genki way and skipping over to him. "Kami's breath, you look stunning. I can see why she liked you so much back then!" He dodged her hug as she still had the bucket of trash in her hands.
"Who would that be?" he asked, refusing to let himself hope.
"Who do you think?" Misao laughed, remembering her task before she could spill the trash on herself. "Aeryn-chan was quite a fond of sharing information if you knew how to read between the lines. I think she remembered about as much about your first meeting as you did. And she just loved your eyes. She used to talk about those 'beautiful violet eyes' like they were all she wanted in life." The teen grinned at his smug look as she revealed things Aeryn had sworn her to secrecy about. A part of her felt bad about the betrayal, but mostly she felt annoyance at her friend. And what better revenge for six weeks of tedium than siccing her old crush on her. "You should come with me tonight. Maybe she'll show her stupid face if you're there."
"What?"
"Where have you been, Kennie? No one knows exactly what happened, but Aeryn-chan just disappeared one day before her eighteenth birthday."
"What?" the young man said, eyes starting to fade to amber.
"Yeah, no one knows where she is. All anyone seems to know is that she didn't leave the country and that she's not dead. Six weeks ago I heard a rumor that she might be hiding on the compound where that cop that's investigating Fuushiro lives. I went there, but no luck. I've been staking out the place ever since, but no luck. I've driven off a couple of thugs trying to sneak onto the property, but I haven't seen hide nor hair of that girl. Honestly, it's starting to piss me off!" She stopped her tirade when she looked up to realize she was staring into the golden irises of a killer. Hmm… Maybe she shouldn't have mentioned the break-in attempts.
"Where is she?"
"Like I said before, she's at the Hajime residence. I'm going there after work tonight. You're welcome to tag along if you want." She only offered because it was becoming hard to breathe in the heat of her old friend's anger. His voice had slipped to a deep baritone that raised goosebumps and his stance screamed aggression. The teen had no doubt that he was seconds from searching her out himself and was only sticking around because he knew Misao was the faster option.
Kenshin looked at the setting sun and decided to take the teen up on her offer. It would take too long to find his girl in the midst of the chaos of the Emperor's Ball. Not only were there the dignitaries and foreigners to contend with, there were the lookie-loos that simply wanted to bask in the glow of royalty and nobility. Searching through all of that insanity for her unique signature would take forever and she might slip through his senses. "Meet me here at eight o'clock, Misao. There's no way she won't try to use this insanity to slip away."
"Fine, eight o'clock. I'll be here," she agreed, already attempting to come up with an excuse to cut out on the last hour of her shift.
Turns out that Okon took care of that little problem by needing help to dress for the Ball.
"I had this made especially, but I suddenly don't feel it's the right thing to wear." The next hour was spent going through her substantial closet until she decided to wear the kimono she'd commissioned in the first place. The shoes and jewelry came next and by the time eight o'clock rolled around she was pathetically grateful to cut out of the restaurant and meet the geisha turned samurai, no matter how scary he was at the moment.
If she'd been any more aware of her surroundings, she may have noticed that the Shirobeko closed as soon as she rounded the corner. That, of course, had been the point all along.
"Okon, you look lovely tonight," Omasu said laughed as she ran the brush once more through her curls. "But do you think Misao will really be okay?"
"Omasu! you know she has to learn that she can't always be the center of attention. She's too old to be gallavanting around the city like she does. She ought to be looking for a husband right now. In fact, that's what we should do to get her over Lord Aoshi for good. Everyone knows that the Okashira can't have a wife."
"Everyone but our poor little Misao," the two agreed sadly. The ladies finished their preparations quickly as the rest of the Oniwabanshu shadowed their youngest member to see what the heiress was likely to do.
Aeryn stood in the floral patterned silken gi and hamaka she'd worked tirelessly on the last four weeks. Lord knows she'd had enough time since Misao had taken up her nightly vigil. What had happened to the whimsical girl that flitted from idea to idea like a hummingbird? Part of her was proud of her old friend for her show of maturity and dedication. But mostly she wanted to go out there and beat the idiot girl senseless for interfering. She didn't need this scrutiny; running to Misao would have meant running to the Oniwabanshu and she wasn't ready to trust her fate to Shinomori and his merry band of ninjas. At least she could guess to the Wolf's motives, no one knew the Okashira's plans but himself.
Brushing her hands over her clothes once more and adjusting her braids to make sure they were tight to her head for the fight ahead, the woman sighed and tried not to let her knees knock as she thought of all the threats out there tonight. Between the Okashira and his Oniwabanshu, Fuushiro and his goons, Kanryu and the Bejings he'd imported to secure his underground empire, and the imperial troops determined to keep intruders off the palace grounds this night, she was really asking for trouble. But this was the only night when this could work! Any other night Emperor Meiji could choose to entertain foreigners or not. The US embassy was a long shot at best. But tonight… Tonight the who's who of the world were on display. Tonight everybody who's anybody would be there and that's what she needed for her father's plan to work. Of course the plan was supposed to go into motion the year before, but she'd been too damaged to achieve the proper effect. The head of Grayland Power had to be bold, decisive… Not in a body cast.
Luckily everything had healed in proper order, though her arm still pained her when it was about to rain. And ever since Misao had announced her hiding place to the world, she really had no choice but to make a run for it. The compound was empty tonight. Tokio had taken her boys to her mother's earlier in the day and Saitou-kun was working the gate of the Ball to try and give her an opening should she make it to the Ball at all. This way his family was out of harm's way, thus helping her keep her promise. Now, if only this run of hers could be a bit easier…
Rubbing her sweaty palms on her silk pants again, the heiress looked at the clock again. 8:09. She'd decided to start her run for the Ball at 8:30. It was enough time for the initial craziness of the ball to have faded away, but still early enough that even the most cursory of the guests wouldn't be thinking of leaving yet. Getting to the ball itself would take about a half-hour, barring all the nonsense she was about to put herself through. Once she was there, it would be a matter of being recognized, or barring that, breaking onto the grounds and grabbing the Emperor's attention. God, she was not looking forward to that. Especially since that was likely her best option. How well were these clothes going to hold up in fighting conditions? Maybe she should take more than Tokio's gift set of clothes to her. In fact… Quickly she went back to her room and swapped her clothes so that the silk of her new hamaka and gi would have a better chance of surviving the night. Folding the clothes absently, the woman packed them away in the backpack in the middle of her back. Even wrinkled, her new clothes were better for presentation once the initial craziness of her arrival was over. What would she look like tearing through the crowd like a mad woman? And most importantly… How much longer would she have to stand here plotting out all the things that could go wrong?
8:22
Damnit! Why was everything always worse when you had time to think about it? She'd already done this stupid run in her head 27 times, but she was still stuck at the starting line, wishing she had the money for a carriage or something, anything faster than her feet. Couldn't it be time already?
8:23
Oh, fuck this noise! She should just open the gate and run. But Saitou-kun had insisted that he needed a full hour or more to set up his distractions and he'd left for his shift at 8:00. The goal tonight was as little bloodshed as possible when it came to the guards at the palace. With the others too; she didn't want to show up to the equivalent of her coronation looking like a bloody horror. Saitou-kun had lent her a sword, but also a sheath so that she strike to wound when possible.
8:26
And then there was the question of proving her identity. It was one thing to show up and make such a fantastic claim. But to actually prove it while the masses were present… Well, she had a fix for that. If she could just get there.
8:27
God, was the damn clock running backwards while she wasn't looking? How was time moving so damn slow the closer she got to time? Wasn't it supposed to be the opposite? With time speeding up the closer she got to her impending doom? Or was it the anticipation that was slowing things down for her? The Hajime residence was fairly far from the center of town where all the action would be, yet another reason that swinging a sword around in the middle of a crowd and possibly knocking out some poor civilian was a horrible idea. If for no other reason than the panic and confusion it would cause in the masses. How the hell was she supposed to accomplish this?
8:29
It didn't matter. None of this stuff could matter now. She'd spent the last sixteen months building up to this moment. She'd planned, trained, sewed, trained, read, trained, and trained some more anticipating this very moment. The moment that her true revenge would begin was upon her. The moment that her dead parents would be avenged. They'd been happy before Max Fuushiro had come into their lives and ruined everything. They'd been a fairytale come true; heiress meets and marries a commoner and together they'd run the empire, supplying half of the world's energy needs. They'd been happy, and that happiness had culminated in her birth. She don't know what happened that she was the only Darcy born, but that was simply the way it turned out. They loved her and raised her to take over the company when the time came. She was not just to be a pretty face, but an actual leader. This wasn't just about taking back the empire that was her birthright, it was about setting things right. She didn't belong in Japan of all places and the company did not belong in the hands of her wicked uncle. It was time to claim what was hers.
8:30
Showtime.
